inside out
by silver moon droplet
Summary: zutara: you make me happy when skies are gray.
1. denim x electrifying

x denim x  
(Denim and Leather - brought us all together)

Katara ran her fingers through his ebony hair, grabbing the locks as the boy's lips collided with her own. He pulled her into his mouth, inviting her with his tongue as her lips mashed with his. His hands tugged at belt loop, drawing her closer to him; her knee bumped with his, but she didn't mind. In fact, she moved closer, placing herself on his lap. He grinned, resting his hands on her lower back, and she shivered at the feeling of his hot hands on her cold skin. It was almost too much, and in the end she had to break away from him. She set her head on his shoulder, breathing heavily; her arms rested tightly around his neck as he kissed her collarbone.

One aqua blue eye met his amber ones. He smiled at her, and her face, already flushed, grew redder. He chuckled, though it was muffled against her jaw line, and she traced her hand down his denim-covered leg, liking how it felt against her fingers. He cupped her face in his hand, and she looked into his eyes and melted in his lap. He kissed her softly this time, only brushing his lips against hers, which were tender and soft to the touch.

x electrifying x  
(Speeding, sparks like lightning)

Zuko was never one for speed limits.

He sat with his group of friends – well, his sister's – and his girlfriend as they babbled on about something he didn't care about at all. He tapped his fingers impatiently as he drove them around like a good boyfriend, so that they could shop and giggle. He wanted to leave them, to be honest; he wanted to jump into his car and drive and never come back – never go home. But instead, he stood holding Mai's hand as her best friend and his sister went from place to place.

Azula – searching for nothing in particular, just coming along to irk him.

Ty Lee – on a mission. What it was? Zuko didn't know nor care.

And Mai – insulting the stores and bringing a rain of doom and gloom wherever she went.

They were all driving him insane.

Then she appeared. Ramming hard into him, knocking him (and Ty Lee's bags) over, she stared at him with aqua eyes. He blinked, confused, and her face flushed crimson, but she sat unmoved on top of him.

"Oh, c'mon, Sugar Queen, I didn't push you that hard," came the voice from above as she roared with laughter. The girl with the aqua eyes and coffee locks stood up, glaring at the young girl who had pushed her.

"Toph, you tripped me and I fell onto someone." Toph grinned at this comment and the other girl rolled her eyes, lending her hand out. She helped Zuko to his feet and picked up Ty Lee's bags. Zuko was thankful that his sister was in the store – he'd never hear the end of it, otherwise. "I'm sorry."

"It's fine…" And, for the first time that day, it was. He couldn't help but stare into her electrifying eyes.

"Zuzu, Ty Lee and I have more bags for you," Azula said, smiling sadistically. She stopped dead in her tracks, glaring at the two girls that were standing in front of him. "Why, hello." He could already picture the insults coming out of her mouth. "We were just—"

"Leaving," he answered, grabbing his sister's wrist and dragging her away from them. He wouldn't risk Azula messing up the one thing good that had happened today. He didn't even know her name – it had happened so fast.

"Bye, Zuzu!" Toph called after them, and he didn't turn back. He closed his eyes and pictured the girl with the exhilarating blue eyes and piercing smile.

2 OF 7 ; ahem. FOR ZUTARA WEEK BABY. 8D


	2. smug x manipulative x mythology x stare

The second installment for Zutara week, and for the record I wrote one a day – maybe two if I got stuck :p I just haven't posted them yet and now I am. Mythology has spoilers for Western Air temple, Boiling Rock,

Disclaimer: don't make me laugh. Tokka would be canon – oh wait, IT IS.

x smug x  
**(A great expectation from the man who ran the show)**

Katara always wins. Always. At whatever she does, no matter what. Sokka thinks it began long ago, when Katara was a mere infant. The gods had blessed her with the ability to always be right, always. Whether it comes to holding her breath, bringing home the state medal, or passing that one test, she always achieves perfection.

Sokka is sitting at home now, a math book on his lap and his eyes glued to the television screen.

"TAKE HIM OUT, THE BOULDER!" he screams as Katara walks in. She slams her book bag on the floor, crosses her arms, and sits down next to him in a huff. Sokka looks away from the screen for a brief moment – his sister always takes her bag into her room before she comes in to criticize him about how wrestling isn't real and that he's wasting his time. But today, every hair is out of place and her generally happy nature has been replaced with that of a demon's.

"_So_…" he says carefully, not wanting to upset her and have a curse cast upon him, or _worse_ – have her bitch him out. "_How_ was _school_?" She glares daggers at him, and Sokka instantly regrets opening his mouth. Awkwardly, he twiddles his thumbs.

"School? How. Was. _School_?" she ask, pulling out her book and slamming it into her lap. She rips it open, and Sokka has to feel sorry for it – that should be him. Katara flips each page as if she were attacking it. "It would have been _fine_, just an ordinary day, if _Zuko_ would have just stayed in the damn fire nation where he belongs!" She pulls out a piece of paper so quickly that she cuts her finger on it. She flinches, and then she puts her finger in her mouth. Sokka grins – it was moments like these where Sokka knows that his sister isn't a robot.

"So this Zuko…he's an overachiever like yourself…?"

"I'm not an _overachiever_." She pauses. "Just because you have no goals in life besides sitting on the couch while your mind rots away…some of us _do_ have _goals_."

"I know, I know. I'm voting for you for president. "

She ignores his last comment. "He's just so full of it. Every time I went to answer a question, Master Pakku would pick him because he was the new kid." She pulls her ponytail up and hastily ties her hair into a bun. "And…he has better grades than me, Sokka. And he thinks, 'Oh, just because I'm from the Fire Nation and I have sexy hair, I'm just the friggin' prince of the friggin' school." She slams her hands down. "I've worked my whole life to get to this point, and he thinks he can just waltz right in and take it _away_ from me?!"

"His hair…is _sexy_?" Sokka raises an eyebrow. "Is it as sexy as _Haru's_?"

"Toph's words, not mine," she stammers quickly. Sokka rolls his eyes before snorting accordingly. Katara ignores him, continuing, "And he's just so infuriating, acting all innocent and coy like he doesn't know what he's doing. Like in Bato's class today – he just kept staring at me and then looking away all flustered. He was trying to cheat on my pop quiz, I know it." She sighs huffily. "What I don't understand is how he got a better quiz grade than me."

Sokka rolls his eyes, Katara could be blinder than Toph sometimes. "So, he's smart, _sexy, _and he has a thing for you…I say go for it." Katara stares at her brother as if he had grown a second head. Her mouth is agape. Sokka figures the conversation is over, so his eyes go back to the usual after-school programming; he watches as The Boulder is slammed down by Jet and grimaces.

He ignores his sister as she gets up, grumbling "…doesn't listen to a word I say," as well as "he and Toph don't know what they're talking about." Sokka sits in his seat with a smug look on his face, satisfied that his sister had finally met her match.

x manipulative x  
**(Just can't live without her) **

"Why are we _here_?" Throwing his arms up, Zuko sighs. He had been sent off to do an errand for Katara _yesterday_. But somehow the trio (Zuko, Aang, and their idiot leader Sokka) had managed to leave the Southern Water Tribe and end up in the Earth Kingdom. At first, Zuko had just thought that they were flying around aimlessly on Appa, but he discovered soon that this was part of Sokka's grand plan and Aang was just there for the ride.

"Because," Sokka states, booing as some earthbender called The Boulder is thrown out of the ring. "My sister has you whipped. You need some manly man time." He stands up, screaming about some other fighter in whom Zuko isn't interested. He doesn't care – he just wants to get back to Katara.

"And the fact that _Toph_ is the champion here has nothing to do with it," Aang teases. Zuko watches as his brother-in-law flushes and then turns his attention back to the earthbenders in the ring.

Zuko sighs yet again, wanting nothing more than to go home.

Aang turns to his Fire Master with a concerned look on his face. "Don't worry. I'm sure after he sees Toph we'll go home." Home. Home for the young Avatar is wherever the world needed him. Home for Sokka is the Southern Water Tribe. Home for Zuko is with Katara, wherever that maybe.

"Oh, c'mon, Zuko – you could use some time away from the puppet master," Sokka takes a bite out of his rooster-pig leg. "Besides, I bet Katara doesn't even notice we took you."

- - -

"That manipulative bastard!" She cuts the cabbage angrily. "Who the hell does he think he is, just taking my husband away?! And what about the responsibilities?!" she scream at the leaves. Chopping harder, picturing Sokka's limbs, she then scrapes it into the bowl. "When I get a hold of him, he's going to wish he was dead!"

- - -

"Somehow I don't think that's going to be the case," Aang laughs nervously.

Zuko smiles. At least he has that to look forward to when he gets back. His hormonal, pregnant wife – how he misses her so.

x mythology x  
**(its time you start believing) **

"Morning, Prince Sparkypants," Toph says as he had enters the room. Asking Toph to politely say 'Zuko' was like asking a mule to move after it had sat down on your breakfast.

She and Katara are sitting with their feet in the water, Katara moving into the fountain for a nice clean dip. Or she was. She turns to Zuko and glowers, and the banished Fire Prince scratches his head awkwardly. Ever since he had joined up with the Avatar, she has been the wariest.

The tension in the air could be cut with a knife. Katara snatches her towel up and gets out of the water, not taking her eyes off him. There is such a passion of hate there, but he supposes he deserves it. Correction: he knows he does. He wishes that he can get the Water Tribe girl to trust him, to look him in the face with the same caring expression that she gives the Avatar.

Zuko is about to leave, when Toph motions him to sit by her. He blinked in confusion.

The girl's face twitches in annoyance, and she sighs loudly. "C'mon, I bet your sparky feet ache just as much as my _burnt_ ones." Guilt sweeps through the boy, and he sits down next to her, slipping his feet into the cold water. He watches as Toph wiggles her toes in the pool beneath her.

"I'm really…" He pauses as she looks at him. "…sorry."

"Damn right you are." She grins, victorious. "But, you know, you don't have to beat yourself over it – _any_ of it." She looks over at Katara, who continues to ignore the two. "It's all water under the bridge, even though _some_ of us aren't _mature_ enough to accept it." He doesn't know whether she is trying to comfort him or if she's trying to harass Katara. The latter seems to win out.

Katara turns around from her spot of eavesdropping, her face red with anger. "Excuse _me_, Miss "I forgive everyone on a whim," but he was trying to kill us, and don't give me this "he changed" crap – he could just as easily change his mind _again_." The battle of Ba Sing Se flashes in his mind, and remorse swells up in his body.

Toph tenses. "We're never going to defeat Ozai if you don't trust him!" she bellows back. "He wants to help us – he wants to help _Aang_!" Zuko can't take it anymore. He isn't a child – he doesn't need to watch them like a helpless kid.

"_Stop_!" He is surprised at the desperation in his voice. Both girls stare at him. "Just _stop_," he repeats, unsure what to do with their attention. He sways his feet in the water, aware that he doesn't belong here, that she doesn't want him here. But he has to be. He has no choice.

This is his destiny.

Katara sits next to him, her hand relatively close to his. "Look, I'm _sorry_." She pauses, looking at Toph, who says nothing. Splashing her feet in the water, getting Zuko's pant-leg wet, she continues, "It's just so hard to let go sometimes. You put us through hell." Zuko's heart ached to her. He understands that he has spent forever and a day hunting them down.

His pinky inches closer towards hers, and she doesn't move.

"I wouldn't forgive me either if I was you," he says honestly. Katara dips her feet into the fountain, her pinky moving slowly towards his. Entwining it with hers cautiously, he looks down at his hand – her cool skin brushes against his. With her free hand, she sweeps it against his cheek, and when she pulls back on her fingertip lays a single eyelash.

"Make a wish."

"That's just a myth," he scoffs. Her expression doesn't change, and she shoves her fingertip to the tip of his lips. He softly blows on the tip of her finger, and her face flushes pink.

He looks down into the water.

"What'd you wish for, Sparky?" Toph asks suddenly. She had been awfully quiet this whole time.

She pulls her feet out of the water, creating a ripple in Zuko's reflection.

"I can't tell you." He smiles at Katara. "Or it might not come true."

"Just a myth my _ass_." Toph grins, clasping her hands together behind her head and leaving the two entwined pinkies alone.

x stare x  
**(when you look me in the eyes)**

Deep within his amber eyes lay his secrets, locked away behind every expression that he makes – just with one look, Katara can tell behind that fake veneer how he is really feeling. And, just with a glance, one singular glance, she can soothe his inner demons. A glance can cure his broken soul, his heartache, his remorse, and every last bit of suffering that he has been through. Staring into her aquamarine orbs, he even forgets the scar left on his eye.

She's already healed the ones on his heart.

6OF7


End file.
